Is there a server property I can use to find out the version of SQL Server installed on a 2 node cluster?

I recently had a situation where there was a SQL 2008 RTM cluster with one node being at SP1 and the other node bing at SP3, but querying @@Version showed SP3. How can I tell what version each node of a cluster is on?

@@version will report the version of the node currently serving the instance. I believe you would need to fail over the SQL Server instance cluster service to the node you want to query the version of.

SQL 2008 Cluster setup needs to be run twice (on a two node cluster) So you will end with two binaries install, one per node. This is different from SQL 2005 where it was just one setup that runs over the network, but prone to issues in case of missing dlls or stuff not properly copied (actually happened to me one time, long time ago, ugly experience detected almost a year later)

For that reason, I believe you need to fail over the passive node, become active, and run

A bladelogic scan indicated one node of the server was at SP1. After I failed this test server over, I was able to see SP1. I just wondered if there was a way for me to tell if both nodes in the cluster are at the same SP/patch level without failing over.

SQL 2005 I always installed on Active node, and I experienced the same problem as you with the passive node not getting all the updates. I like SQL 2008 much better, maintains availablity in the process.

alanspeckman (11/13/2012)A bladelogic scan indicated one node of the server was at SP1. After I failed this test server over, I was able to see SP1. I just wondered if there was a way for me to tell if both nodes in the cluster are at the same SP/patch level without failing over.

SQL 2005 I always installed on Active node, and I experienced the same problem as you with the passive node not getting all the updates. I like SQL 2008 much better, maintains availablity in the process.

Agree! SQL 2008 was a step forward.

Do not trust me on this, I need To Validate. But maybe you can right click a exe or dll inside the binaries, each node, and check version?